


14. Is something burning?

by Anything00but



Series: Whumptober 2020 [14]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Aftermath of Torture, Angst, Dark, Dark Stiles Stilinski, Dom Stiles Stilinski, Established Relationship, Fear, Fire, Good Peter Hale, Human Stiles Stilinski, M/M, Possessive Behavior, Scents & Smells, Semi-Sane Peter, Sub Peter Hale, Torture, Unhealthy Relationships, Werewolf Healing, Werewolf Hunters, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:53:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27003844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anything00but/pseuds/Anything00but
Summary: Peter hates fire.He has hated it his whole life. Since he was a small child and when he was an adult it didn’t change for the better. The hate just turned into a fear after he survived the Hale house fire. He can still feel the heat on his skin and the pack bonds breaking one by one as his family burns around him when he is close to fire.
Relationships: Peter Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: Whumptober 2020 [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947130
Comments: 4
Kudos: 80
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	14. Is something burning?

**branding** /heat exhaustion/fire

  
  


Peter hates fire. 

He has hated it his whole life. Since he was a small child and when he was an adult it didn’t change for the better. The hate just turned into a fear after he survived the Hale house fire. He can still feel the heat on his skin and the pack bonds breaking one by one as his family burns around him when he is close to fire. He can smell the burning flesh and hear the pained screams of the children as they burn alive, all this just smelling smoke.

He can feel the burning of his own skin if it gets too hot. He can feel the agonizing pain of healing a cell by cell while being locked in his own head. He doesn’t enjoy the sun like he used to before the fire. He doesn’t want to go outside when the heatwave hits the town. He stays inside with the air conditioner turned up high to cool down the apartment.

Stiles has been known to use Peter’s apartment whenever it is possible because his apartment is the best. Stiles’ words, not Peter’s. The pack is always complaining about how Stiles can be in Peter’s cooled down apartment when the rest of them have to suffer from the heat. Stiles always smiles but doesn’t answer them.

Why would he? It’s between the two of them.

Peter has always considered himself to be a reasonable man with a healthy amount of fear towards fire. He doesn’t want to be close to it, to it be a candle or a fireplace. He doesn’t have either of those things in his home. He doesn’t have candles, and he doesn’t have matches or lighters either. Stiles once brought a candle over, Peter does not know why. It is something that they don’t ever bring up or talk about.

The little bastard is the most possessive creature Peter has ever encountered. Stiles hates anyone touching what he considers as his. And Peter happens to be one of those few things that Stiles considers as his. One being the Sheriff Stilinski and Peter is the only other thing Stiles holds important to himself. 

Peter isn’t as lucky as the sheriff. Peter receives Stiles’ undivided attention and possessiveness. The sheriff is free to do and go as long as he doesn’t eat unhealthily and eats the food Stiles makes for him. And the sheriff knows this but he does nothing to stop Stiles from pursuing his possessive tendencies.

Their relationship isn’t a normal one. Peter isn’t even sure how it started but he has more than once wondered if it was a mutual decision to start it. He is a master manipulator but Stiles is on his own level with it.

One would say that Peter is the possessive bastard.

No. 

He is more than generous as he lets Stiles share his time between him and the rest of the back and his father. He lets Stiles scent with the rest of the pack, he lets Stiles go as he pleases. Unfortunately Peter isn’t treated with the same regard.

Stiles hates to see anyone, even someone from the pack, to touch Peter. He doesn’t want to see any marks left by anyone other than him on Peter’s body. No other lingering scents or touches. Stiles has made it very clear to Peter that he is not to let anyone else touch him.

Stiles smiles before everyone but once they return to Peter’s apartment all hell breaks loose. Peter has learned to avoid people and their touches. He knows to stay away from the pack and Derek. He doesn’t want to anger Stiles. The boy is hard to read or get a scent of his emotions on a best day. It’s impossible on the worst days.

It is just bullshit that the hunters used fire to separate the pack from each other. Stiles will be furious when he gets Peter back. 

The hunters used the chaos to take him down. Wolfsbane darts and bullets will take down even the most powerful of wolves. And Peter is just a beta.

Peter really does hate fire.

He watches with a creeping dread as the hunters that took him bring out a blow torch. He starts to fight against the chains and collar as the hunter’s show him their branding iron. He fights them but he is too foggy from the wolfsbane running in his veins, he is too weak to break the chains.

He refuses to react when they light the blow torch and start heating the iron. He refuses to react as they make him kneel before them as they rip his shirt from his body. He knows what the A on the heating metal bar stands for.

Argent.

Peter screams as they press the hot iron in his flesh. He can smell the burning flesh and blistering skin. He feels the burned skin turn black under the red iron and the surrounding area of the skin turning angry red. He remembers all those horrible memories from years ago when his family burned alive. He screams as they hold him still so he doesn’t struggle against it.

He cries relieved as they remove the iron. He can feel his skin healing slowly, knitting the burned skin back together. He can push the memories back as he concentrates on his breathing. He starts shaking when the hunters start to speak about doing it again because the mark heals. 

They heat the iron again and press the iron back to his flesh.

Peter begs them to stop when they come up with an idea to cover the iron in wolfsbane, aconite and mistletoe mix to slow down the healing. They laugh as they dip the glowing red iron in the powder of mixture. 

He doesn’t have a voice left to beg when they finally remove the iron from the skin of his back.

\---------

Peter fears how calm Stiles is when he comes with the pack to save him.

It’s Derek that kicks in the front door of the cabin he is being held in. Stiles is a close second to march in from the door. The boy is calm and collected as he attacks the hunters. 

Peter can only cry in his head, relieved as Derek tears off the hunters heads. He watches with unshed tears of pure agony as blood spills on the floor before his feet from the headless corpses. He sighs quietly as Stiles snaps the neck of the last hunter that is holding their gun against Peter’s head. 

The eye contact with Peter the whole time makes Peter shiver. He isn’t cold. He is scared.

“Are you alright?” Derek asks as he rushes to his uncle’s side.

“Do I look like I’m alright?” Peter asks weakly as Derek opens the chains that are holding Peter.

Derek doesn’t say anything as he throws the chains away. Peter can feel eyes on his back where the branding mark is. The bright red mark that won’t heal.

No one says anything about it. They don’t dare to say anything.

Stiles keeps ignoring him after they get out of the cabin. The boy doesn’t speak to him, he doesn’t even look at him. Stiles doesn’t speak to anyone else either as he marches to his Jeep and waits for Peter to follow him. And Peter does. He always does.

He climbs in the car and sits down with a sigh as his back touches the seat. Stiles sits behind the wheel and starts the car. They leave the rest of the pack to deal with the hunters and clean it up.

No one dares to stop Stiles. They know what will happen next and they don’t want any part in it. They all know how Stiles gets when someone touches Peter, they have seen it in Stiles eyes. They have witnessed the fall out once, or the start of it. Never once they have made the mistake of touching Peter.

Peter can scent how angry Stiles is now in the closed space of the car. And he fears what is coming when they finally reach his apartment.

The ride goes by too fast for Peter’s liking as Stiles pulls up and turns the car off. He follows behind Stiles as the boy leads the way towards Peter’s apartment. Stiles walks the stairs two at a time and pulls out the key. 

Peter can only wonder from where Stiles has gotten it. He hasn’t given the boy a key to his home. But Stiles still has a copy of it and he has had it for a long time. Peter is too afraid to take it away from Stiles at this point.

Stiles uses the key to open the door to Peter’s apartment. He kicks his shoes by the door and throws his jacket on the floor. Peter shuts the door silently, taking his own shoes off, leaving them neatly next to Stiles’.

“Come here”, Stiles snarls angrily as he stands in the middle of Peter’s open kitchen.

Peter walks to Stiles and kneels before him. He keeps his head down, feeling ashamed of getting kidnapped and letting anyone touch him. He was too weak to follow Stiles’ rules. And Stiles doesn’t stand for it.

Stiles hums as he stares at Peter on his knees. The blood and dirt covering the man’s body as Stiles circles him, observing the damage. He doesn’t like what he sees. He runs his fingers over the red and raw burn mark. The A burned on Peter’s skin is a clear mocking sign on what is his.

“What did they use to get it to scar?” Stiles asks coldly.

“A mixture of wolfsbane, mistletoe and aconite. Those were the ones I could recognize at least”, Peter answers holding his voice steady but it breaks towards the end.

“I see”, Stiles says angrily as he runs his finger over the scarred skin.

The hand leaves his skin as Stiles steps away from him. Peter keeps his head down, afraid to move, Stiles is angry enough at it. Peter hears as Stiles pulls a knife out of a knife holder. The steady sound of steel touching the metal of the stand makes his skin crawl. His stomach drops as Stiles comes to stand behind him.

The steel feels cold against his skin as Stiles presses it against him.

“If you move or even make a sound I will make you regret it”, Stiles growls hatefully as he sinks the knife in Peter’s skin.

Peter knows he will regret it. He stays as still as he can as Stiles starts to cut his skin around the burn mark. His back burns as Stiles cuts his skin, the kitchen knife not the sharpest for this but it will do just fine for Stiles and the punishment he has in his mind for Peter.

The knife cut a line down then to the right. 

Peter fights back the pathetic whine that wants to escape his lips. He is too weak to take more punishment for the night.

Hot blood runs down Peter’s bare back and onto the floor. Peter tries to keep still but his hands shake. He claps them together in front of him to stop them from shaking but he knows it’s no use.

The knife cuts again, a line up and to the left before it hits the floor with a loud clunk in the silent house. Stiles’ fingers dig painfully in the cuts he just made and pulls. The cut skin giving in to the force that Stiles is using. Peter trembles in pain as the boy pulls the slice of skin he just cut. The slice that holds the branding mark tears off with a sickening sound of tearing flesh as Stiles pulls it off.

The bloody slice of skin holding the letter A falls before Peter’s feet.

Peter feels tears falling down his face as he stares at the piece of his skin. There the branding mark mocks him, telling this all is his fault for being too careless. 

Peter feels the skin knit itself back together, growing skin and tissue over the bleeding area. It will take hours to heal completely. His pulse is beating loudly in his ears and he almost misses what Stiles says next.

“Go wash yourself and when you are done go to the bedroom”, Stiles' voice sounds far away but Peter pulls himself weakly to his legs and heads to the bathroom.

He doesn’t lock the door, he knows better. Peter tries to take his pants off the way that would not pull his back and the healing skin. It takes a minute as the water runs in the shower before he manages to shed the pants on the floor.

Peter steps under the water, turning it hotter. He knows Stiles could come and check the temperature and if it is not to his liking the night would keep going. The hot water makes his new and raw skin on his back sting but biting his lip he can keep from crying out loud. He watches as the water runs pink and brown, before slowly turning to clear. He pours the scent free shampoo on his hand and washes his hair.

More pink water goes to the drain.

He washes every part of him, fearing the punishment of being dirty after all of this. 

He shuts the shower and dries himself carefully. He can feel the skin on his back being already a little stronger, a little bit healthier. He can hear Stiles waiting for him in the bedroom as he opens the bathroom door.

Stiles is sitting on the bed, waiting.

Peter kneels before the boy, hair dripping water, fully naked.

Stiles runs his eyes over the man’s body before nodding his approval. Peter sighs in his head when Stiles runs his hand over his cheek. The touch gently but firm, guiding Peter to rise from the ground.

Stiles turns the light off on the nightstand as he pulls them under the covers. Stiles lays Peter so he can wrap around the man. It’s a silent reminder for Peter of who he belongs to. Peter knows he got relatively easy off the hook tonight. He isn’t keen to try his luck as he settles in Stiles’ arms.


End file.
